Restaurants and cafés often provide in-store menu boards or displays that include textual identifiers and cost values of menu items. The menu boards generally include very limited information about the food or beverage items. Some menus also include static graphical images of food or beverage items. Customers view the menu board or display and order a desired food and/or beverage item based on the textual identifier and cost value of the item, which may include additions or modifications, such as side dishes, substitutions, flavors or mix-ins. The customers then wait while an employee prepares the food item.
In a self-serve context, various vending machines and other dispensing units include a graphical display that enable individual customers to order their own beverages and/or food items, e.g., via a touch screen user interface. For example, a customer via the touch screen user interface may order a beverage by selecting an icon associated with a desired base flavor and selecting one or more icons associated with respective additional flavors or ingredients.
Throughout the drawings, reference numbers are re-used to indicate correspondence between referenced elements. The drawings are provided to illustrate embodiments of the inventions described herein and not to limit the scope thereof.